X is an American punk rock band formed in Los Angeles. The original members are vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist-bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D. J. Bonebrake. X was founded by bassist-singer Doe and guitarist Zoom, a rockabilly rebel who’d performed with Gene Vincent. Doe brought his poetry-writing girlfriend Cervenka to band practices, and she eventually joined the band as a vocalist. The poet, Exene Cervenka, had just moved to town from Florida and she told him, no offense, but if anyone was gonna perform her poems, it would be her, and she soon ended up in the band. Zoom was skeptical about someone’s girlfriend being in the band. After they did their first show with Exene, he didn’t know exactly what it was she had, but he knew it was magic. Drummer Bonebrake was the last of the original members to join after leaving local group The Eyes; he also filled in on drums for Germs.The band have released seven studio albums from 1980 to 1993. After a period of inactivity during the mid-to-late 1990s, X reunited in the early 2000s and continues to tour as of 2022.
X achieved limited mainstream success but influenced various genres of music, including punk rock, Americana, They are considered to be one of the most influential bands of their era. In 2003, X’s first two studio albums, “Los Angeles” and “Wild Gift”, were ranked by Rolling Stone as being among the 500 greatest albums of all time. “Los Angeles” was ranked 91st on Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. X’s first record deal was with independent label Dangerhouse, for which the band produced one single, “Adult Books”/”We’re Desperate” (1978). A Dangerhouse session version of “Los Angeles” was also featured on a 1979 Dangerhouse 12-inch EP compilation called “Yes L.A.”
“Los Angeles”
After signing to the larger independent label, Slash Records, The result was their debut, “Los Angeles” (1980) which was produced by the Doors’ keyboard player, Ray Manzarek. It sold well by the standards of independent labels. Much of X’s early material had a rockabilly edge. Doe and Cervenka co-wrote most of the group’s songs and their slightly off-kilter harmony vocals served as the group’s most distinctive element. “The quintessential L.A. punk band made the first great West Coast punk album with its debut. “Los Angeles” is best known for its city-defining anthem and the torrid “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene”; it also shows that punk and classic rock can be occasional friends”
“Wild Gift“
Their follow-up effort, “Wild Gift” (1981), was similar in musical style. It featured shorter, faster songs and is arguably their most stereotypically punk-sounding record.
During 1981, both Doe and Bonebrake (along with Blasters guitarist Dave Alvin, were members of The Flesh Eaters, performing on that band’s second album, “A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die”.
“Wild Gift” is the second album . Coming close on the heels of their critically acclaimed debut album “Los Angeles” which was released just over a year earlier, this much anticipated follow up promised to be a good indicator of whether the band was indeed deserving of all those “Best Band/Album” of 1980 mentions it had garnered just several months earlier.
With “Wild Gift” X answered all doubters and believers at once with what can only be described as an out of the park homerun. Harder, edgier, and more mature then the album which came before it, and with improved songwriting as well, “Wild Gift” is a slice of lowdown living and even lower down good times, all wrapped up in a punk rock romance X was continuing with their city, their music, and in the case of co-songwriters and lead singers John Doe and Exene Cervenka,with each other.”
“Under the Big Black Sun”
X signed with a major label Elektra in 1982 and released “Under the Big Black Sun”, which marked a departure from their trademark sound. While still fast and loud, with raw punk guitars, the album displayed evolving country leanings. The album was influenced by the death of Cervenka’s elder sister Mirielle in a 1980 car accident. Three songs on the album (“Riding with Mary”, “Come Back to Me” and the title track) all directly relate to the tragedy. A fourth, a high-speed cover version of Al Dubin and Joe Burke’s “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes”, was, years later, indirectly attributed to Cervenka’s mournful state of mind. The stark black-and-white cover art and title were also a reflection of the sombre mood of the band during this time. Cervenka said it is her favorite X album. It explored dark love and an even darker L.A. with the unflinching eye of a Raymond Chandler novel. Doe and Cervenka would marry and later divorce, but they’d always remain soulmates.
“X’s first album issued on a major label, 1982’s “Under the Big Black Sun”, is arguably their finest record. All 11 songs are exceptional, from both a performance and compositional point of view. Ray Manzerek’s production is more akin to hard rock bands than their earlier punk works, but the songs still pack quite a punch. Before the recording of the album, singer Exene Cervenka’s sister was killed by a drunk driver, and the band decided to work out their grief in the music, as evidenced by two of the album’s best tracks: the melodic “Riding With Mary” and the vintage ’50s sound of “Come Back to Me.” The highlights don’t stop there, however; also included are the Led Zepplin’esque “The Hungry Wolf” (an early video favourite of MTV), the accelerating “Motel Room in My Bed,” the rocker “Blue Spark,” the spacious title track, and the album closer “The Have Nots.” Again, Cervenka and John Doe supply some great vocal harmonies (perhaps the only punk band to ever do so), while Billy Zoom shows off great rockabilly chops throughout. “Under The Big Black Sun” is one of the quintessential rock records from the ’80s.
“More Fun in the New World”
In 1983, the band slightly redefined their sound with the release of the album “More Fun in the New World”, making X a more polished, eclectic and radio-ready than on previous albums. With the sound moving away from punk rock, the band’s rockabilly influence became even more noticeable, along with some new elements: funk on the track “True Love Pt. II”, and Woody Guthrie-influenced folk protest songs like “The New World” and “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”. The record received critical praise from Rolling Stone and Playboy, which had long been stalwart supporters of X and their sound.
“Coming off their 1982 masterpiece “Under the Big Black Sun”, X offered their follow-up “More Fun in the New World” one year later. While its predecessor won the band a slew of new fans, it didn’t serve as the major breakthrough that it so deservedly should have. Rightfully, they didn’t fool with their already winning formula; they issued another solid set of songs produced, again, by Ray Manzarek. The anthemic album opener “The New World” is still powerful years later, as is the absolutely beautiful ballad “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts,” which perfectly captures the paranoid feeling of Reagan’s America in the ’80s. X achieved new rough and rocking heights with the vicious “Devil Doll,” “Painting the Town Blue,” and “Make the Music Go Bang,” while returning once again to their retro ’50s roots with “Poor Girl”.
“Ain’t Love Grand!”
Despite the overwhelmingly positive critical reception for the band’s first four albums, they were frustrated by its lack of wider mainstream success. Zoom had also said that he would leave the band unless its next album was more successful. The band decided to change producers in search of a more accessible sound. Their fifth record, “Ain’t Love Grand!”, was produced by pop metal producer Michael Wagener. It featured a drastic change in sound, especially in the polished and layered production, while the band’s punk roots were little in evidence, replaced by a countrified version of hard rock.
“For 1985’s “Ain’t Love Grand” , the most noticeable difference is in the production replacing longtime X ally Ray Manzerek. As usual, the songwriting and performances shine, but the raw sound of their earlier work is noticeably absent — instead of changing his approach for X, Wagener produced them as he would a metal band of the ’80s, smoothing out the rough edges. Still, the band scored perhaps their biggest radio and MTV hit ever with “Burning House of Love,” and they composed such other highlights as “What’s Wrong With Me,” “All or Nothing,” and “My Soul Cries Your Name.”
The change in production was intended to bring the band more chart success, but although it received more mainstream radio play than their earlier releases, it did not represent a commercial breakthrough. “Burning House of Love”, the album’s first single, Zoom left the group shortly thereafter in 1986, the same year in which the feature-length documentary film, “X: The Unheard Music”, Zoom was initially replaced by Dave Alvin, who had left the Blasters. The band then added a fifth member, guitarist Tony Gilkyson, formerly of the band Lone Justice.
“See How We Are”
By the time the band released its sixth album, “See How We Are”, Alvin had already left the band, although he played on the record along with Gilkyson and wrote “4th of July” for the band. Like “Ain’t Love Grand”, the album’s sound was far removed from the band’s punk origins, yet featured a punchy, energetic, hard-rocking roots rock style sound that in many ways represented a more natural progression from their earlier sound than the previous album had. For “See How We Are”, X “enlisted the help of newcomer Alvin Clark, who merges the punk sound of X’s earlier work with Wagener’s glossy approach. Included as the title track is one of X’s all-time best ballads — proof of how beautiful and affecting John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s vocal harmonies can be. Also featured are the anthemic rocker “4th of July” (written by ex-Blasters and sometimes X fill-in guitarist Dave Alvin), and the standouts “In the Time It Takes,” “I’m Lost,” and “Surprise Surprise”.
After touring for the album, X released a live album of the tour, titled “Live at the Whisky a Go-Go”.
Recorded in late 1987 at a hometown venue, “Live At The Whiskey A Go-Go” On The Fabulous Sunset Strip finds X with a new guitar player in Tony Gilkyson, a bigger live sound, and an undiminished fire in their hearts. After the disappointing “Ain’t Love Grand” album and the subsequent return to form album “See How We Are”, X hit the road with a somewhat new sound to go along with their somewhat eclectic punk rock brew, and the resulting tour and shows were nothing short of what had become expected of this band. Which is to say outstanding.”
Hey Zeus!
X regrouped in the early 1990s to record their seventh studio album, “Hey Zeus!”, released in 1993 on the Big Life label. The album marked somewhat of a retreat from the increasingly roots rock direction that the band’s past few records had gone in, instead featuring an eclectic alternative rock sound that fit in well with the then-current musical climate. Despite this, it failed to become a hit, although two of its songs, “Country at War” and “New Life,” did the lower reaches of the American charts
The band released an acoustic live album, “Unclogged”, in 1995 on Infidelity Records,
“Beyond and Back: The X Anthology”
In 1997, X released a compilation called “Beyond and Back: The X Anthology”, which focused heavily on the early years with Zoom and included a number of previously unreleased versions of songs that had appeared on their previous albums. It was the release of “Beyond & Back: The X Anthology” that caused Billy Zoom to rejoin X. Tower Records in Hollywood wanted to do a record signing. The line of people stretched down Sunset Blvd. and they thought maybe we should play together again…
X cannot be praised enough. The legendary L.A. band wrote countless classics, released consistent albums, and have influenced many along the way (just check out the raves fellow rockers give the band in “Beyond & Back‘s” liner notes). It’s a testament to their greatness that the material on “Beyond & Back: The X Anthology” sounds original and fresh in the present day. The group touched on many styles, such as rockabilly, folk, and punk, and successfully made each one their own. This two-CD release is a hefty two hours long, and is 50 percent hits and 50 percent rarities/unreleased material (demos, outtakes, live takes, etc.).
At the same time, they also announced that they were disbanding. However, they did a farewell tour to promote the compilation in 1998, with Zoom returning on guitar. The original line-up also returned to the studio for the final time, with Manzarek reprising his role as producer, to record a cover of the Doors’ “The Crystal Ship” .
Compiled by bassist, vocalist, and songwriter John Doe, “The Best: Make the Music Go Bang” just skims the high points from X’s catalogue, but oh what high points they are — disc one culls the gems from the band’s first four album’s and it’s a stunning reminder of why this band was so important, with Billy Zoom’s roots-thrash guitar lines, John Doe and D.J. Bonebrake’s precise but furious rhythms, and the hot and sour harmonies of Doe and Exene Cervenka sounding as potent today as they did in 1980.
Disc Two covers the more underappreciated “Ain’t Love Grand”, “See How We Are”, and “Hey Zeus!”, as well as the live set “Live at the Whisky a Go-Go” on the Fabulous Sunset Strip and the sole album from Doe, Cervenka, and Bonebrake’s country-leaning side project, the Knitters. At over two and a half hours, “The Best: Make the Music Go Bang” is an intensive introduction to this band whose bulk might scare off casual observers, and loyal fans will already have nearly everything here (beyond some rare single sides). But if you want a thorough tutorial in a truly remarkable band and a solid dose of quality listening, this more than fills the order…
X: The Unheard Music was released on DVD in 2005, as was the concert DVD “X – Live in Los Angeles”, which commemorated the 25th anniversary of the band’s landmark debut album, “Los Angeles”
X is still a great live band. A quarter century after that cracked onto the LA scene, essentially defining punk in that town, they still rock the old way—simple back beat, gut-kicking rockabilly guitar and vocals that ride the wave of music directly. This pair of releases—a CD and DVD of a no-frills, straight-up rock show in November of last year—X delivers the goods.
X poses a series of dilemmas for rock history buffs or historians. It is a band that both defied and defined an era, and the mystery is that they didn’t either (a) blow up the way Talking Heads did, transcending its origins, or (b) explode into nothingness so we could either forget about them or romanticize their absence. X was an original, authentic punk band in a glitzy, unpunky town. Their punk rock credibility was undeniable—strong, angry lyrics over a direct guitar attack that did not trade in bullshit. Then, when they went beyond punk, it was not to become more accessible in the manner of, say, Elvis Costello or David Byrne, but to embrace the older roots of their punk sound: rockabilly or folk. Though their fronts were John Doe and Exene, the once-married singers, the image of the group for many fans was the pompadoured guitarist, Billy Zoom—a guy who visually as well as musically bridged the musical divide of the band.
In 2018, the band released “X – Live in Latin America” via a Kickstarter campaign, to coincide with the band’s 40th anniversary. The album was recorded during a 2011 tour where X was the opening band for Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam’s sound engineer made the recordings, and presented them to X at the end of the tour. The album was produced by Rob Schnapf, and featured all four original members of X.
“Alphabetland”
Fat Possum Records released two new X songs as a single, followed by the “genuinely good” new album “Alphabetland” in April 2020. Punk, like any genre, comes with its fair share of mythic origins. The late ’70s, early ’80s West Coast punk scene is a place of legend in the minds of American punk fans, X got their start. While some bands crashed and burned, fell prey to addictions, or simply faded away, others remain as stalwart symbols of an iconic place and time. the foursome made up of Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake. 40 years after their seminal debut album,, the original lineup have reunited for an anniversary album – the first with the original line-up in 35 years.
But is not a nostalgia project. The album, released early at the behest of the band, is one they could have made at any point in their careers. 40 years on, X still sounds as biting and driving as they did on the opening chords of “Los Angeles.” The songs are timely and smart, as the band’s writing has always been, and the band’s musicianship is stronger than ever. Exene says, “If it’s the end, it’s a fitting one.” And it is – but let’s hope it’s not.
In February 2021, Fat Possum released “Xtras”: two more tracks from the same recording sessions, one being an alternate version. Robby Krieger, from the Doors, played slide guitar on one track each of “Alphabetland” and of “Xtras”.
It’s in Billy’s guitar sound that X makes itself felt most profoundly. The guy can thrash it out, no doubt. But there is an undeniable twang in his sound. Just like The Ramones were always more than punk because they were essentially and self-consciously rooted in ‘50s and ‘60s garage rock (in a way that say, the Damned and the Pistols never were and probably never could have been), X seems knowingly to come out of the string-strangling style of Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore. All their tunes, whether they overtly reference rockabilly or not, seem like real rock ‘n’ roll rather than just “punk rock”—the act of defiance, the social statement, the music you might play when you’re 25 but hardly when you’re 50. So here’s X, fully a quarter century after their emergence, aged 50 or better it seems, still playing “Los Angeles” and “Johny Hit and Run Paulene” and “We’re Desperate”. And they sound great. They sound punk even. They sound like people playing pop music with direct energy genuine conviction and blues wit, which is to say that they sound like rock ‘n’ rollers, still, whatever kind of rock you want to call it.
The Fat Angel Sings 